Japanese Grand Prix: Pole at Verstappen

Cloudy. Dry. Air +19С, track +26…25С

In 2022, Formula 1 returned to Japan after a three-year hiatus due to Covid-19. Even on Friday, when Suzuku was raining and it was cold, the stands were packed.

Due to the weather, there was only an hour of training left on Saturday to find the settings and work with rubber, in which the teams gave their best. Everyone covered a long distance, the best lap went to Max Verstappen, who was ahead of the Ferrari drivers.

Qualifying at Suzuka is always interesting, but pole position is not fundamental – in the last ten years the race has only been won five times by the driver who started first. Of the current riders, only Vettel and Hamilton were able to take pole position on the Japanese track, which this time did not participate in the battle for victory in qualifying.

Tire manufacturers brought the heaviest compounds to Japan, C1, C2, and C3 tires were used as Hard, Medium and Soft.

In the first session Mercedes drivers chose Medium for the first attempt, the rest went to Soft. The speed difference proved significant and Mercedes also put Soft on the second attempt.

Norris went off the track with no impact on the car. Gasly complained of brake problems, as did his teammate Tsunoda, who locked the tires hard before the chicane, destroying the kit. Elbon’s time was removed due to track deviation.

After putting in a lap with a best time of 1:30.224 in the first attempt, Verstappen didn’t go out in the second, but remained in the lead. Elbon, Gasly, Magnussen, Stroll and Latifi dropped out of the further battle.

In the second session everything went to Soft. On the first attempt, Verstappen again led the protocol, but with a slightly worse result than in the first session – 1:30,346. The top three – Verstappen, Sainz and Leclerc – refused the second attempt, the rest continued to fight – and Perez set the best time, having circled in 1:29.925, and Alonso – the second.

Ricciardo, Bottas, Tsunoda, Zhou and Schumacher did not qualify for the final.

In the final Okon, Hamilton and Russell started the session in rolled soft kits, the rest went out fresh.

While the tires were warming up, Max suddenly swerved straight in front of Norris’s car, forcing Lando to pull onto the grass to avoid a collision. The stewards reviewed the incident after the session and issued a formal warning to Verstappen.

In the first attempt, Verstappen led the scoresheet with 1:29.304. In the second, Leclerc narrowed the gap to a minimum, lost a hundredth, but remained second.

Max Verstappen won qualifying at Suzuka with his fifth pole of the season and 18th of his career. Tomorrow Charles Leclerc will start with him from the front row, Sainz and Perez will start from the second row, Ocon and Hamilton will start from the third row.

Qualification Results